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Monday, March 24, 2014

Microsoft employee arrested for snooping

An ex-Microsoft employee was arrested by the FBI for stealing and leaking copies of Microsoft Windows 8.

Tech companies have denied any acknowledgement of the government
spying on people who use their Internet services.

Although, a legal
case was recently filed against a former Microsoft employee that proves the companies snoop on their customers whenever they like.

Microsoft accused their former employee of stealing company trade secrets and leaking the software to a blogger.

A further investigation showed that there were email instant messages
of the blogger and the ex-Microsoft employee conversing about these
accounts.

Microsoft is hanging their head low because they condemned Google of
this same allegation in the past. The companies campaign mocked Gmail’s privacy policy that gave them the right to store and access private information of its customers.

The ex-Microsoft accused employee is Alex Kibkalo, he allegedly gave a French blogger the source code to Windows 8, prior to his discharge.

During the case’s investigation, the company snooped on the blogger’s
Hotmail emails and instant messages. They found that he did receive
confidential information from Kibkalo.

Not too long after the revelation, Microsoft released a statement
saying the company would take the necessary steps to reassure users that
their communications will be private.

Microsoft’s vice president and deputy general counsel, John E. Frank,
said if Microsoft has any evidence of wrongdoing against it, the
company will submit that evidence to an outside lawyer who is a former
judge, and would conduct a search of private communications only if the
judge concluded there was enough evidence to meet the standards for a
court order.

Mr. Kibkalo, a Russian national, was arrested in Seattle earlier this
week. Russel Leonard, the public defender assigned to represent him,
did not respond to the request for any comments.

The blogger also admitted to receiving confidential information and
software from Mr. Kibkalo. He disclosed that activation keys were sold
for Windows Server software on eBay.

Nate Cardozo, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
said that many companies had broad terms of service. It is extremely
rare that the terms are actually followed through and sift through a
customer’s personal email.

“To see Microsoft using this right to essentially look
through a blogger’s email account for evidence of wrongdoing and then
turn it over on a silver platter for law enforcement, it is extremely
undesirable,” Mr. Cardozo said.